Weekend Pics

We took a quick, three day trip up to Garmisch, Germany this weekend. It's a small ski town on the German/Austrian border, where the Alpine Ski World Cup 2011 just happened to be underway. It was a lovely little jaunt out of town and, though we didn't ski this time, we all had a blast. We wandered around the quaint little town, ate lots of delicious food, swam in the hotel pool, met up for dinner with a big group of friends one evening and walked around the beautiful and frozen Eibsee lake.

There are more pictures in my Flickr stream, but here are a few of my favorites.

Taking It Waaaay Back

A while back, I fell in love with and purchased an old Bilora Bella 66 medium format film camera. The body itself is so pretty and I love the retro look captured by the camera. Using brand new film and completely modern developing techniques, the pictures look like they were taken 50 years ago! Love that.

I took these pictures back in August. I know, I know. I scanned them in September! Not sure why it took another 5 months to post them but here we are.









I picked up some color medium format film and shot some pictures on our recent Sunday afternoon excursion. I'm hoping to drop those off for developing today!

Weekend Pics

We had such beautiful weather this weekend, that we had to get out and see something new. So, on Sunday, we took a short drive over to a cute little town called Rottenberg am Neckar, walked by the river, sat outside at a cafe, drank beer, ate cake and watched the kiddos play in the sunshine. It was lovely!

I took more pictures with my old Bilora Bella medium format film camera. (Can't wait to get those developed!) But, I snapped a few with the new school camera, too.



I'm not sure why the bunting was up, but I loved it.



It was such a beautiful day, the reflection in this small drainage creek was amazing.

Oh, no not cats!

Maybe cats that pray for Deutschland wins are ok.

We've long noticed Deutschland's love of dogs, but - not being cat people ourselves - had no idea on the local feel for felines. A new acquaintance called their hotel before their recent arrival to make sure it accepted pets. Oh yes! We love pets!, he was told. So, he and his family showed up on the doorstep, cat and carrier in hand. Oh, no! Not cats!, he was told.

But, you said you allowed pets...?

Yes, we do! But, not cats.

Imagine his confusion. A common acquaintance with German family roots explained. Cats aren't pets. Consider them more like farm equipment! And, you certainly wouldn't move your oxen or your tractor into your hotel room, would you? I mean, sure, your oxen serves a purpose but it does not sleep by your bed!

???!?!?!?

I found this hilarious.

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Zwei

^Holiday in Berlin, Day Two

Oops, I took too long to post and now I'm losing steam. Day Two in Berlin was what we were calling Super Fun Kid Day. I'm not sure why, but giving things Engrish style labels makes them even more awesome.

We started out at the Berlin Zoo, where it was so pretty, fun for the kids, and ohhhh so very cold.







Then, we headed into the Aquarium where it was much warmer. El Niño is really into that type of thing. Cheeseball is more into surprise relaxation spots.



Hours and hours and hours later Mom hijacked Super Fun Kid Day to drag the kids to the KaDeWe department store. It claims to be the biggest department store on the European continent and I think that's probably about right. It was ridiculously huge. I actually just wanted to pop into the Idee craft store, housed in the department store. But, that crafty El Niño hijacked my hijack and spotted the Lego Berlin store on the way.


Pretty stoked.

After that, we headed to the flea market where my pictures came to a crashing halt, because you know...propietors, goods...I have a thing. But, I did pick up some vintage buttons and a sweet pin to embellish some pieces for the store.

Day Three I can roll up in one sentence: swim meet. Actually, that's not even a sentence. We spent the entire day at the pool. I was hoping we would make it out of there in time to hop over to (what I heard was) an even cooler flea market. But, the meet ran long and that was that. Next time!

We had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to another trip to Berlin sometime. For now, though, we're thinking about Spring Break and what we want to see then!

Urlaub in Berlin, Tag Eins

^Holiday in Berlin, Day One

Last week El Niño had a swim meet in Berlin, which we used as an excuse to spend several days exploring. Berlin is newly minted as one of my favorite cities in the world. It has so much character and style and the oddest charm - kind of communist chic. So much of the old Soviet style is evident in the Eastern section, but modern sensibilities are taking over and making for a fantastically unique mix.

I need to warn you now that we did not visit Checkpoint Charlie or Das Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) or see any remnants of the wall or any of the new memorials to opposition politicians or Holocaust victims. It's not that I'm not interested in history or Nazi sites. It's just that I'm that tourist. I will go to Paris and never see the Eiffel Tower. I only saw the Mall in D.C. briefly and because I tagged along with others for whom it was a priority. I have an interest in visiting a place like Auschwitz where I believe the experience in person will be completely different than what you get from a printed account. But, to stand in line to look at the outside of the building where a handful of nutjobs dreamed up The Final Solution? Or to scurry all the way across town to get a glimpse of a place where there used to be a wall? No, thanks.

I was more interested in exploring the fabulously hip Prenzlauer Berg district and Berlin's storied flea markets. The kids were far more interested in checking out the zoo. So, we did what we wanted to do and we had an absolutely lovely time. I took a pathetic number of pictures, but here they are:



The sheer amount of graffiti - particularly in East Berlin - was astounding. And the quality was fantastic. I loved the way the artistic youth have absolutely reclaimed their city. Without it, the whole place would still look a lot like this:



Some people seemed determined to keep their spaces art free, and they were lovely too. I can't imagine the battle it requires, though.



There were so many cute shops and little cafes and restaurants of all different world cuisines! I wish I was less self-conscious about taking pictures inside establishments but I have a thing, what can I say.

Suffice it to say that El Niño got his sushi fix, I got my adorable eclectic shop fix and Cheeseball got very tired. After that, we hopped over to the slightly more tony Hackescher Markt. There was a cool Japanese department store called Muji of which I again took no pictures, but we loved exploring all the stuff. Their selection was definitely of the modern, sleek stylish Japanese variety rather than the kawaii, colorful adorable Japanese variety. Less interesting for the kids, but I loved it.

We wandered by this gorgeous synagogue, guarded by three fully armed Polizei.



Then stumbled on this beautiful building on the river.





And that was day one!

Christmas time is near.

It's been cold here in Germany. Very cold. Sehr sehr kalt. (Which I can't say without being corrected by Cheeseball. She still understands a lot more German than she speaks, but what she speaks sounds like actual German. Versus my French-y American German. And El niño's El Deutsch.)


I'm going to pretend I think this spider froze to death and fell off its web instead of the more likely migration INTO MY HOUSE.

Around this time of year, Christmas Markets spring up all over the country. These are heavy with warm, mulled wine (glühwein), potatos fried in various and sundry ways, beautifully carved ornaments & wreaths and the usual tourist junk that accumulates in any fair type setting. This past weekend, we caught the train up to Stuttgart for the Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt. It was full of people, cold and crisp, smelled wonderful and was so much fun. I can't wait to visit other markets in different towns!

Oh, hello there.

Oh good, the blog is still here. I'm not sure what happened, but I lost steam for a while there. In the past few months, we've experienced our first Oktoberfest, gone to Italy, cheered El Niño in swim meets wandering across Western Germany, started watching the snow fall and I've started selling crocheted hats!

While Oktoberfest is technically only in Munich, we went to a fall festival with lots of beer and sausage.




We drink beer and wear Adidas!

Earlier this month, we went to Lignano Sabbiadoro in Northern Italy at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a neat little tourist town that is probably packed to the gills in the summer, but was quiet and welcoming at the beginning of the winter. It was a very short trip (although the drive with four kids under ten felt somewhat long) with two days spent driving, one day spent at a swim meet and one day spent wandering Venice.

Venice was amazing. We wandered aimlessly, admiring beautiful buildings that turned out to be things like grocery stores, until we found ourselves passing the same friendly Thai vendor for the fourth time. With phones out of service and the garmin confused by the lack of roads, we ended up buying a map. We explained to the kids what a map was and how in the olden days people were able to find their way with nothing more than a brightly colored piece of paper to guide them. They were in awe. The trip was a lot of fun, and whet our appetite for more exploration.

As I mentioned, I've also started selling crocheted hats. It started with a craft fair here that I submitted a few hats to. Only two sold, but an acquaintance recognized the work as mine and asked me to make a custom hat like one I had made for Cheeseball.

I later added a pink flower to this one.

This was the color scheme requested for my first order. Awesome, no?

Several other people overheard and I've received a bunch of other orders within the same group. I also volunteered to crochet some hats for El Niño's swim team and they sold 6 last week, proceeds going to the team. It's all been so fun and empowering, that I decided to open a store on Etsy. So, that was a really long way of saying...check out my shop!




So, that's three months in a nutshell. Suddenly I realize that I've missed this space and I think that means I'll wander back sooner rather than later next time.

My town has fleas.

I've been trying to make it up to the Saturday flea market (flohmarkt, here) in Stuttgart for what seems like ages now. For one reason or another, I just haven't been able to make it. But, last week, a flea market came to me! What luck!



And when my little village has a flea market, they have a flea market. Oh my goodness, it was amazing! There were bands...


And I mean bands.

...food, beer gardens, wine booths, camels...


Seriously, camels.

...and booth after booth of wonderful flea market finds for the taking. At first, I was doing it wrong. Nothing had prices marked and I kept asking "was viel kostet das? (what does that cost?)" until I finally ended up side by side with locals at a few booths. They just name a price, haggle from there and make a deal. Fun!

I ended up walking home with some things I really wanted. I was on the hunt for tea cups for Cheeseball. She loves tea parties and throws them for herself and her dolls on a regular basis. Now that she's a little older and a little less prone to random breakage, I'd like to replace her kiddie tea set with vintage cups and saucers. In my mind, I picture a set wherein nothing matches but everything is pretty. So, I was mainly looking for those, but ended up with this instead.



I can now report that sewing machines are heavy when you walk all the way home with them. I am quite pleased this one came with a handle. I've been looking for a sewing machine with European plugs and now I have one! I just need to figure out what all the German on my machine means and then how to sew. I mentioned recently that I was on the hunt for a "new" alarm clock and I found one!



Isn't it cute!? I wasn't quite used to actual ticking, so at first it felt rather like trying to fall asleep next to a bomb. Unfortunately, Jack Bauer didn't pop up while I was dozing off, but neither did the clock explode. So, there's that. And I wasn't quite used to a clock that needed to be wound, so I forgot to do it at first and it stopped ticking. But, the clock and I have an understanding now. And the best part of all of this is that I only spent around € 25!!

Let's Call It Brinner. Or Dinfast.

Some days you just don't much feel like cooking. On those days, I try to resist the siren call of the frozen lasagna (and that call is sooooo good) by whipping up something easy and fun. Sometimes it seems all you have to do to muster up a little enthusiasm is take a little side road off your beaten path.

Days like that we come up with new things like Bacon and Eggs Spaghetti. Or It's-ah Breakfast-ah eh-Spaghetti. Or Noodle Eggs and Ham. Or Noodles Cooked By One Who Is Easily Sidetracked.

Anyway.

The kickoff point was a recipe posted long ago by my friend Lea of Smörgåsbord. I vaguely remembered her cooking some sort of noodle dish that she cracked an egg into, letting the heat from the noodles cook the egg.

I'm not that adventurous.

In fact, a very popular Japanese dish consists of cracking a raw egg into hot rice and mixing in a little soy sauce. It's called tamago. I scramble the eggs first and call it egg rice.

So, I scrambled the eggs, chopped and cooked the bacon, cooked the noodles and mixed it all together, letting the bacon grease coat and flavor the noodles. Less adventurous, still darn good.



And a bonus shot of the outdoor seating at a little cafe we came across as we wandered downtown Stuttgart the other day. Just because I really liked it.

Cheeseball Parade

Over the weekend, we got a lovely taste of small town, German style. One of the kindergartens (German kindergarten is akin to American preschool, for kids ages 3 to 6) in town was celebrating their 100th anniversary. So, the town shut down all the streets at the center of town and children from every kindergarten in town got together to march in a parade.

Look how many people came! And this is just part of the route. I was pretty amazed.




Each class in each kindergarten represented a different book, some of which are recognizable to Americans...



The Very Hungry Caterpillar


Where The Wild Things Are


Pippi Longstocking

...and some of which were not, but were equally adorable.




Cheeseball's class walked out of the pages of a book called Swimmy. I've never heard of it, but feel like I might have to buy it now!

Deutschland wins!

We still haven't hooked up any tv, but we always know when Germany is playing, when Germany scores and most clearly when Germany wins. I captured about 45 seconds of a celebration that lasted that many minutes.

Last time Germany won, I assumed these people were all on their ways home from watching the game at biergartens or with friends. Last night, I watched my neighbor run outside, get in his car, honk his way out the driveway and down the street then return to his garage and go back into his house about five minutes later. Now I wonder how many of the people in these cars are driving just to celebrate!

You can't really see the guys standing down the street waving their flags or hear them honking their vuvuzelas or singing the Deutschland song. But they're there. And I didn't capture any of the people sitting on their car windows, Dukes of Hazzard style, waving their full size Deutschland flags as they go down the road. But they're out there as well.

It's a really good time when Deutschland wins.

Schloss Ludwigsburg

Just a few pictures I snapped when we visited Schloss Ludwigsburg. I took a bunch inside as well. Going back through them, I really only find myself drawn to the outside shots that also catch the old car show on display that day.